Politics

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has a contested Republican primary for governor fast approaching, but there are few signs that the top candidate sees it as a competitive race.

Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with President Donald Trump into a record fundraising haul that he is tapping for advertising spots aimed at the November election. He is using campaign rallies and advertising to criticize his would-be general election opponent, Democrat Amy Acton, the state’s former public health director.

Ramaswamy feels so assured of gliding through the May 5 primary that his campaign has all but ignored his GOP opponent so far.

“I believe this year we face the single greatest contrast between two candidates in the history of governor’s races in Ohio,” he told Republicans at a recent party fundraising dinner, referencing the general election. “We face the most consequential election for governor in the history of our state.”

Nonetheless, the primary season has exposed potential vulnerabilities for the 2024 presidential candidate.

Ramaswamy faces growing headwinds within a GOP base disgruntled over the rising cost of living, the disjointed release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the burgeoning demands of data centers and the war with Iran. Ramaswamy is also under criticism for some of his proposals, such as consolidating the state’s university system and raising the voting age to 25. Critics say those ideas suggest the Ivy League-educated biotech billionaire is out of touch with average Ohioans.

The criticism has veered into the personal, surfacing as ethnic and racial animosity toward Ramaswamy, a child of Indian immigrants.

If Ramaswamy is the nominee, his supporters worry less that Republicans will switch sides and vote for a Democrat than about the factors that could depress conservative turnout. If enough voters stay home in the fall, Ohio could see its first Democratic governor in 20 years.

“We have three opponents right now in this race,” Ramaswamy’s running mate, state Senate President Rob McColley, said in remarks to Republicans in rural Marion County that were shared by WGH Talk. “We have Amy Acton, we have the national political environment and then we have complacency. I would argue the third opponent is the most dangerous opponent we possibly have.”

Discontent among a segment of Ohio’s conservative voters is being funneled into curiosity about Casey Putsch’s campaign.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.

His events are sparsely attended and his campaign has raised only $123,000, but Putsch has won over some conservative voters. Tyler Morris, an ambulance manufacturing worker from central Ohio, is among them.

“When I hear people like Casey speak, he’s a guy like me,” Morris, 32, said as he was on his way to see Putsch speak at a Columbus park. “He’s just a guy that got pissed off one day. He’s not a politician. He’s like, do you know what — I want to speak for the average, everyday Ohioan.”

Morris said he used to support Trump, but has since soured on him and will not back a candidate endorsed by the president, as Ramaswamy is.

“I say I’m politically cynical, because it’s just like regardless of who I vote for, I feel like as an average Ohioan, it seems like things are just getting worse and worse for everyone,” he said.

Putsch’s messaging has gone beyond the pitch to make life better for working-class Ohioans. He has been accused of contributing to the spread of ethnic hatred toward Ramaswamy, including repeatedly taking issue with the candidate’s Indian heritage and Hindu faith.

As he was beginning his campaign, Putsch said Ramaswamy had contempt for “American cultural values.” In one online video, he called for Ramaswamy to “be destroyed.”

The day after Putsch’s launch, a Ramaswamy opinion piece in The New York Times asked Republicans to reject the far-right, white nationalist element within the Republican Party in favor of a vision of American identity “based on ideals.”

“No matter your ancestry, if you wait your turn and obtain citizenship, you are every bit as American as a Mayflower descendant as long as you subscribe to the creed of the American founding and the culture that was born of it,” he wrote. “This is what makes American exceptionalism possible.”

Ramaswamy, who was born and raised in Cincinnati, followed up the column by rebuking racism and antisemitism within Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, angering some members of his party.

Amid the fallout from that speech, Ramaswamy’s social media posts were drawing increasingly ugly and racist reactions. Putsch also has pushed racial epithets, including depicting Ramaswamy as a stink bug he is spraying with insecticide and challenging him to a game of “cowboys and Indians.”

In January, Ramaswamy announced he was getting off Instagram and the social media site X.

“Leaders who depend on social media to gauge public opinion are looking through a broken mirror,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column.

Putsch mocked Ramaswamy for the decision, posting to X that his rival “can’t take the heat.”

The Ohio Republican Party chairman, Alex Triantafilou, dismisses Putsch’s attacks as typical for a primary election.

“The online right these days, it’s meaningless to the message of where we are as a party on the ground,” Triantafilou said.

He cited Ramaswamy’s national profile, his political skills and his fundraising prowess — a record $50 million in total contributions, though roughly half is from Ramaswamy’s own fortune.

“In every possible category of what we want in a candidate, he has it,” Triantafilou said.

Aaron Baer, president of the Columbus-based Center for Christian Virtue, also rejects Putsch’s disparagement of Ramaswamy’s background, including questioning Ramaswamy’s ability to lead “a Christian state.”

“The bottom line is Vivek Ramaswamy, while he doesn’t share the Christian faith with me and millions of other Ohioans, he very much shares our values,” Baer said.

Ramaswamy has been running what looks like a general election campaign, drawing impressive crowds during visits to each of Ohio’s 88 counties. His strategy appears to be working for voters like Pam Koch, a 70-year-old pharmacy worker who attended a Lincoln Reagan Day dinner where Ramaswamy was the featured speaker.

Koch described herself as a “pro-life Christian” and said she came to the event “just to see where he stands, you know, spiritually and (on) everything that we value.” Afterward, she said she was delighted with what she heard.

“I think he lines up with all of our values, so I’m excited about that,” she said.

Ron Eckles, a retired communications worker, is sticking with Putsch, partly for qualities the candidate shares with Ramaswamy, such as being a native Ohioan and building his own business. But he believes Putsch is stronger on gun rights and likes that Putsch is an Ohio State University alumnus; Ramaswamy attended Harvard and Yale.

Putsch’s stark financial disadvantage in the primary doesn’t bother him.

“I believe in miracles,” Eckles said.

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By Jacob Bogage and Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s tuxedo still looked freshly pressed when he stepped to the White House podium Saturday night, barely an hour after the latest apparent attempt on his life.

“When you’re impactful, they go after you,” the U.S. president told some of the highest-powered journalists in Washington.

Many of them were still dressed in their own formal wear from a celebrated annual event, the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which ended abruptly after a man sprinted past security outside the ballroom, armed with multiple weapons.

“When you’re not impactful,” Trump added, “they leave you alone.”

Trump’s remarks in the aftermath of an incident that caused many of the 2,600 people in attendance to dive to the floor as the Secret Service hustled away the president and other dignitaries underscored his instinct to spin narratives with himself as the undaunted hero — a juggernaut, a survivor — while rarely missing a chance to plug his priorities.

On this occasion, that included a controversial new White House ballroom that, he insisted, would be safer than the Washington Hilton, where then-President Ronald Reagan was shot during an assassination attempt in 1981.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on social media Sunday that the Justice Department would ask a judge to dismiss a pending case that has stalled the ballroom’s construction. Tim Sheehy, a Republican senator from Montana, and Randy Fine, a Republican U.S. Representative from Florida, both wrote that they planned to introduce legislation in the coming days to grant Trump permission to build the facility — echoing Trump’s own political messaging.

“We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it,” Trump said Saturday night, without offering evidence that presidential security officials have issued such demands.

‘DANGER INTO POLITICAL ASSET’

Trump, who is mired in the lowest approval ratings of his term after the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran that is broadly unpopular with Americans, has experience at the opportunities presented by such moments.

A gunman armed with a high-powered rifle injured Trump, leaving his ear bloodied, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. His trademark defiance — with calls of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as agents led him away while he raised his fist in triumph — supplied iconic images that helped power his campaign to return to the White House for a second term.

A second attempt to attack Trump came in September 2024, when a man armed with a rifle perched outside a Trump golf course in Florida before drawing fire from officers, who arrested the gunman.

“No one can turn danger into a political asset better than this president,” a White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s state of mind, told Reuters.

At the dinner Saturday, Trump had been preparing to sharply criticize journalists during his speech, he said afterward. The president, who often derides the press as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people,” was ready to confront them in person, while attending a dinner – called the “nerd prom” in Washington – for the first time as president.

“I was all set to really rip it,” he told reporters in the White House briefing.

That plan was interrupted by a California man who authorities say traveled cross country by train, checked into the Hilton ahead of the dinner, then attempted to dash through security and toward the ballroom, armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives. Authorities exchanged fire with him before tackling him to the ground. He reportedly distributed a “manifesto” making clear his desire to attack Trump and other administration officials.

‘I’VE DONE A LOT’

After the dinner abruptly dispersed, Trump’s initial remarks at the White House were conciliatory.

“In light of this evening’s events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts and resolve our differences peacefully,” said the president. In the past he has defended and ultimately pardoned the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, seeking to overturn Trump’s electoral loss to Joe Biden.

On Saturday night, Trump soon returned to talking about himself — and numbering himself among the finest U.S. presidents. He compared himself to Abraham Lincoln. Trump told reporters that if he had not imposed significant new taxes on imports and had not invested as heavily in the military, he’d be less of a target. 

“We’ve changed this country, and there are a lot of people that are not happy about that,” Trump said.

The White House, he said, needed his $400 million ballroom, for which he unilaterally ordered the destruction of the East Wing of the executive mansion. The facility, Trump has said, will feature a new security bunker, a “drone-proof” roof and bulletproof glass. With a planned space for 650 seated guests, it would not have enough capacity for an event as large as the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. 

Trump continued his arguments Sunday morning, saying on social media, “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. … Nothing should be allowed to interfere with its construction.”

Later, he said he hoped the attack would lead Democrats to drop demands for additional oversight of immigration enforcement and approve new funding for the Department of Homeland Security. He linked the assassination attempt to what he described as successful missions to decapitate the leadership of Venezuela and Iran.

Saturday’s attack, he suggested, was proof of his administration’s achievements.

(Reporting by Jacob Bogage and Nandita Bose. Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Bo Erickson and Trevor Hunnicutt. Editing by Craig Timberg and Deepa Babington)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – Until this month, Democrats have displayed military-like discipline in staying on message about the economy. Then came U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against Iran, his portrayal of himself as a Christ-like figure on social media and his attacks on the pope.

Since then, nearly 40% of House Democrats – 84 as of last week – signed on to Representative Jamie Raskin’s bill to bolster the 25th Amendment with the creation of a special commission to assess presidents’ ability to carry out their duties. The 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides the bare-bones process for taking away a president’s power in a procedure separate from impeachment.

“I think the Raskin effort is matching where people (voters) are at,” said Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, in an interview. “They can’t believe what Donald Trump’s saying.”

But other Democrats warn that focusing on removing Trump, or impeaching him would, at best, muddy their election-year message of making America more affordable, and at worst turn off voters who watched Democrats impeach Trump twice in his first term only to see him acquitted by a Republican-controlled Senate and elected to a second term in 2024.

Moreover, Democrats are on a winning streak with strong performances in special elections since the beginning of last year. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters this month found 77% believe Trump bears at least a fair amount of responsibility for the rise in gas prices since the U.S. and Israel launched a war on Iran, and polls consistently show voters favor Democrats over Republicans as the party best able to address cost-of-living issues.

“I doubt, for instance, that Mary Peltola and Sherrod Brown are going to be talking a lot about impeaching Trump,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of “Sabato’s Crystal Ball” at the University of Virginia, referring to two Democrats running in red states Alaska and Ohio, respectively.

Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who was an aide to Marco Rubio when the current secretary of state was a senator, said Republicans will love it if Democrats make removing Trump part of their election-year appeal to voters. “They will say that Trump is focused on the economy and Democrats are focused on Donald Trump,” he said.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, DEMOCRATS

Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut liberal, agreed that “there is something unbelievably wrong” with Trump, but she has not joined Raskin’s initiative. 

“Let’s get to what the needs are of the country. The economy, healthcare, grocery prices, that’s where I concentrate,” said DeLauro, who is seeking a 19th term in Congress.

One of the most centrist House Democrats, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, told Reuters: “I think we need to focus on what’s important to our districts: the affordability, the ICE raids.” 

The Trump administration has dispatched thousands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents nationwide in an intensified effort to deport migrants that threatens Republican inroads with Hispanic voters. Cuellar’s district hugs the border with Mexico.

“I don’t think we need to vote down impeachment again. It’s already happened. We know what’s going to happen in the Senate,” Cuellar said.

Even Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a leading voice for progressives, distanced herself from Raskin’s effort.

“It is appropriate to look at the 25th Amendment,” she said in an interview. “But it’s going to take Republicans standing up and doing that. The Democrats cannot do it by themselves.”

Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president, working in tandem with the president’s Cabinet heads, would have to initiate a move to temporarily strip him of his powers.

PRESSURE TO IMPEACH FROM THE LEFT

Other Democrats running for re-election this year, however, might need to embrace the idea of impeaching Trump to appeal to the party’s younger left-flank voters.

Representative John Larson of Connecticut, a 77-year-old establishment Democrat, facing a challenge from at least two candidates who are more than three decades younger than him, introduced 13 articles of impeachment against Trump on April 6.           

They range from usurping Congress’ power to declare war and committing war crimes to violating the Constitution’s “emoluments” clauses prohibiting presidents from using their office to enrich themselves.

A Larson spokesperson noted that the congressman has a long record of embracing liberal stances, including his votes against the U.S. war in Iraq.  

For the time being, Democrats are treading carefully on the subject of taking on Trump, despite the party’s string of successes in special elections since January, 2025.

Failing to do so elicits a flurry of accusations from Republicans that Democrats harbor “irrational hatred” of Trump.

“Democrats are Once Again Gearing Up For Impeachment, and Other Than Trump Derangement Syndrome, They Can’t Articulate Why,” said a press release issued April 10 by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

It is an attack that could resonate in states like Ohio, Alaska and North Carolina, where Democrats are trying to oust incumbent Republican senators by winning over independent voters.

WINNING IN RED STATES

Democratic former Senator Brown is in a bid to claw back his Senate seat representing Ohio, which he lost in 2024 after years of backing from blue-collar workers.

Amid all the Washington chatter this month about removing Trump, Brown’s campaign has largely ignored it.

Instead, he is sticking to affordability and arguing that workers are being cheated by “a rigged system” that he says hits everyone from blue-collar laborers to farmers. Among his proposals are capping rate increases on utility bills — not ousting Trump.

Polling puts the economy and consumer prices atop voters’ list of worries, even as Trump works to defend the impact of higher gasoline prices stemming from the U.S. war on Iran as a good investment.

Trump campaigned in 2024 promising to bring down prices. Instead, going into the thick of this year’s political campaigns, the U.S. inflation year-over-year rate was 3.3% in March, up from 2.4% in February. 

Just 25% of respondents in a late March Reuters/Ipsos poll approved of Trump’s handling of the cost of living.

Polling like that heartens Democrats’ midterm hopes, especially given that the party out of power historically fares well in these off-presidential-year elections.

Whether or not the words “impeachment” or “25th Amendment” should be uttered in this campaign season, Democrats agree that linking the Iran war with affordability is a winning argument.

“I had 11 town halls with (constituents’) tremendous frustration around gas prices” during Congress’ spring break, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said in an interview. “What I’m focused on now is showing that we’re involved in concrete results.”

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said in an interview on Sunday on Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing” that the suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was stopped by law enforcement and didn’t come close to entering the ballroom where the event was taking place.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Caitlin Webber)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was reported uninjured and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from an annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after an unspecified threat. There did not immediately appear to be any injuries, and one law-enforcement official said a shooter opened fire.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. “Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck.

Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be five to eight shots fired. The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s speech — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not re-enter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

It was not immediately clear what happened. A law enforcement official confirmed there was a shooter but no further details were immediately available.

Those in attendance included Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier stories follow below.

President Donald Trump and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from an annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after an unspecified threat. There did not immediately appear to be any injuries.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. “Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Trump arrived Saturday night to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet — Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.

Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.

The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.

Trump entered the subterranean banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.

Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.

“What was once (a fairly long time ago) a well-intended night of fundraising and camaraderie among professional adversaries is now simply a bad look,” wrote Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.

On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association “to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”

The WHCA president, CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang, said the organization was fighting for all different forms of the press that have a line in to the American people. “I don’t think people realize how closely we are working with the White House,” she said on CSPAN before the dinner convened. “The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust.”

Welcoming guests, Jiang alluded to the contentious relationship in thanking Leavitt “for everything your team does to work with us every day, whether you like it or not.”

Veteran reporter Manu Raju of CNN, as he entered the Washington Hilton for the dinner, said it was not his role to express his opinion on Trump’s relationship with the press. “I’m not an activist,” he said. “My job is not to protest.”

A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the runup to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Pete Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying “Journalism is dead.”

Many reporters who attend consider it a valuable opportunity to get story ideas and establish personal connections with those in government, one that may pay dividends with returned telephone calls in the future.

Journalists often invite sources as guests at the dinner. It will be noticed Saturday whether administration officials who have also expressed hostility to the press will attend, and with whom they will be sitting. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was invited by the New York Post; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were NBC guests.

“We maintain professional relationships with people across the political spectrum because we are nonpartisan by design — focused on reporting the facts in the public’s interest,” AP spokesman Patrick Maks said.

The White House correspondents will also hand out awards for exemplary reporting. That includes some stories that displeased Trump, such as one from the Journal about a birthday message Trump once sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The story led to a presidential lawsuit.

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By Jacob Bogage

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – The first indications that something had gone wrong at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner came around 8:35 p.m. on Saturday from a series of audible but mysterious thuds.

Dinner chatter paused. 

The silence was broken when the doors crashed open to the giant ballroom at the Washington Hilton, where some 2,600 journalists and their guests – dressed with rare pomp in tuxedos and gowns – had just sat down for the salad courses and glasses of wine. President Donald Trump was seated with first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other dignitaries at a long head table.

Elegantly uniformed waiters soon charged down the middle aisle. Agents hustled Vance and several others off the stage. Plainclothes officers sprang from their seats and pushed to the ground several cabinet members, who had been seated moments earlier at tables among the journalists, then rolled the administration officials beneath tables.

Other officers drew handguns. Still others materialized seemingly from nowhere in full tactical gear, long guns trained on the astonished, alarmed attendees, most of whom were diving to the floor, crawling under tables and chairs for safety.

Trump and the first lady barely moved at first as chaos erupted around them.

“I thought it was a tray going down,” Trump told reporters in a White House press conference hours later.

But it was no service mishap. Authorities later said a gunman with multiple weapons had charged through a security checkpoint the floor above the ballroom, in the same hotel where another lone gunman, John Hinckley Jr., had shot President Reagan as he left an event in 1981.

The suspect in Saturday night’s shooting, identified by a law enforcement official as Cole Allen, a California teacher who was staying at the hotel, allegedly fired rounds from a shotgun that struck a Secret Service agent before he was tackled by police.

Within the ballroom, Secret Service agents soon descended on Trump. The president crouched as they got him out of his chair and stole glances toward the center of the room, where other agents stepped across chairs and tables to reach remaining dignitaries.

Personnel in combat dress swarmed the ballroom stage. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quickly shuttled away. Agents shoved Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin into a side room and led House Speaker Mike Johnson away while tugging on his tuxedo jacket.

Several ball attendees began chanting, “USA! USA! USA!”

Then a roomful of journalists, rising uneasily from the ground where they had spent several unnerving minutes, began to work. Smartphones slid from pockets. Cameras clicked on. Some 2,600 people tried to figure out what exactly had happened. Rumors swirled. Reporters struggled for WiFi access. The password for the event’s network, many suddenly learned, was “MOREWINE.”

Backstage, Trump insisted the show must go on, telling leaders of the White House Correspondents’ Association that he still wished to deliver remarks. Instead, the Secret Service convinced Trump to return to the White House. The dinner was off. The president pledged to resume the event within the next 30 days.

Meanwhile, agents sealed the doors to the ballroom, which grew increasingly warm. Nearly an hour after the shooting, Education Secretary Linda McMahon left the hotel with her security detail.

Gentlemen undid their bow ties. Ladies slid off their high heels. Weijia Jiang, a White House correspondent from CBS News and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, asked guests moments later to depart the Hilton. 

As they did, onlookers at the hotel bar stood by the exits. Their phones were out, recording.

(Reporting by Jacob Bogage; Additional reporting by Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose, Steve Holland and Sally Buzbee; Editing by Craig Timberg and William Mallard)

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By Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose, Jana Winter and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington by Secret Service agents on Saturday night after a man opened fire on security personnel nearby.

The man fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel before being tackled and arrested.

Trump told reporters at a hastily arranged briefing at the White House later that the officer was saved by his bulletproof vest and was in “good shape.” U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi confirmed the officer had been released from hospital.

It was not immediately clear whether Trump was the target of the attack, though he told reporters he believed that he was. The president has survived two previous attempts on his life since 2024, a period of deepening political polarization in the United States.

SUSPECT THOUGHT TO BE ‘LONE WOLF,’ TRUMP SAYS

A law enforcement official identified the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, a California resident about 31 years old. Little was immediately known about Allen’s background, but social media postings suggested he was a teacher in Torrance, near Los Angeles.

Washington interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. He was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated but it was too soon to say what his motivation was, Carroll said.

Based on preliminary information, he was believed to have been a guest at the hotel, Carroll added.

The chaotic events from around 8:35 p.m. (0035 GMT on Sunday) raised fresh questions about the security of top U.S. officials, many of whom were gathered in the hotel’s expansive ballroom.

A focus of the investigation is likely to be how the gunman was able to smuggle the shotgun into the hotel, which hosts the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a marquee fixture of Washington’s social calendar.

The black-tie event was attended by many members of Trump’s cabinet and other senior administration officials amid heavy security. It was the first time Trump attended the event as president, having boycotted it in previous years.

Afterward, Trump addressed reporters, many still in evening attire, in an extraordinary late-night press conference in the White House briefing room, flanked by Vice President JD Vance and other cabinet members. Trump’s wife Melania looked on from the sidelines and demurred when he asked her whether she wanted to talk about the events of the evening.

The venue for the dinner was the scene of an attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin outside the hotel in 1981.

Closed-circuit TV footage released by Trump on Truth Social showed the suspect running rapidly through a security checkpoint, momentarily catching security personnel off-guard before they drew their weapons.

No shots were fired at the gunman who got through two checkpoints before being brought down.

“You know, he charged from 50 yards away, so he was very far away from the room. He was moving. He was really moving,” Trump said after the gala dinner was canceled.

Officials believe he is a “lone wolf,” Trump said.

HOW IT UNFOLDED

Video footage shows Trump and his wife sitting at a banquet table on stage in conversation with someone when a commotion at the rear of the ballroom – caused by the noise of gunshots – triggers a ripple of gasps through the room.

People started screaming “Get down, get down!” Many of the 2,600 attendees dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns took cover under tables as security personnel drew their weapons, with some pushing cabinet secretaries to the floor and covering them with their bodies while others formed a protective cordon.

Security personnel in combat fatigues stormed the stage pointing rifles into the ballroom as Trump, his wife and Vance were evacuated. Cabinet members who had been sitting at tables dotted around the vast room were escorted out by their security details one by one.

While most guests huddled under tables, some people began chanting “USA, USA!”

Trump stayed backstage for about an hour after being hustled from the stage, a source told Reuters. He later said he had not wanted to leave the event, a remark that echoed images of him defiantly pumping his fist after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.

In that attempt, Trump was shot and wounded in his upper ear by a 20-year-old gunman, who was shot dead by security personnel.

Just over two months after the Butler shooting, Secret Service agents spotted a man wielding a gun and hiding in bushes at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was on the course. It was deemed an assassination attempt and the suspect was sentenced to life in prison in February.

(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose, Jana Winter, Steve Holland, Kanishka Singh, Tim Reid, Jonathan Landay, Steve Gorman, Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey, Jasper Ward, Gram Slattery, Humeyra Pamuk and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Writing by Tim Reid; Editing by William Mallard, Sergio Non and Ross Colvin)

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By Jan Wolfe and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – A majority of Americans believe all babies born in the country should automatically be granted citizenship, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on President Donald Trump’s effort to end the practice.The high court is poised to rule in the coming weeks on a range of polarizing issues – from immigration policy and transgender rights to rules on how to count mail-in ballots – that could help define the Republican president’s legacy and set key rules for the November 3 midterm elections.

The poll, conducted nationwide April 15-20, found that 64% of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, while 32% support scrapping it as Trump ordered in January 2025.

Trump’s executive order was challenged in court and Supreme Court justices are expected to rule by the end of June in what will be a landmark civil rights case and a test for Trump’s hardline immigration agenda. The high court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, appeared unlikely to side with Trump during an April 1 oral argument.

Public perception of birthright citizenship is split along party lines, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Only 9% of Democrats think the policy should be scrapped, but Republicans are divided, with 62% supporting an end to birthright citizenship and 36% in favor of keeping it.

The Supreme Court often issues high-profile rulings in May and June as it nears the end of its annual term. 

TRANSGENDER ATHLETES

In cases out of Idaho and West Virginia, the court is expected to allow states to pass laws restricting participation in women’s sports by transgender athletes. 

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found broad support for restrictions on transgender girls and women competing in women’s school and college sports, a topic that has grown into a political flashpoint.

About 67% of survey respondents supported banning transgender people from competing in female school sports. Ninety-two percent of Republicans said they supported such bans, compared with 44% of Democrats.

The court will also weigh in on whether states can count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received days later. Some 65% of respondents said they back counting mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day even if they arrive a few days late.

Eighty-five percent of Democrats said they supported such an approach to counting mail-in ballots, compared with 51% of Republicans.

LOUISIANA HOUSE DISTRICTS

Another case will determine the constitutionality of a Louisiana map of congressional districts that was drawn to raise the number of Black-majority districts in the state from one to two, in order to increase Black voters’ representation. 

A group of white voters want the Supreme Court to block the map, arguing it was guided too much by racial considerations.

Public views on the matter are nuanced. Some 75% of poll respondents – including 65% of Black respondents – said race should not be considered when drawing congressional maps. But about five in 10 respondents – and six in 10 Black respondents – said they thought communities that share characteristics including race should be represented in the same congressional district.

The court has issued major rulings in recent years that have expanded gun rights, rejected race-conscious college admissions, and curbed the power of federal agencies. Its conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his first term.

American views on the Supreme Court have become more partisan over the past five years. Some 70% of Republicans viewed the court favorably in a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted in March, compared with 27% of Democrats. In a December 2021 Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted several months before the court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in 2022, 66% of Republicans said they liked the court, compared with 55% of Democrats. 

The most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll on the Supreme Court was conducted online and gathered responses from 4,557 U.S. adults. It had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Jason Lange in Washington; editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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By Laura Matthews

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump bought at least $51 million in bonds in March, according to financial disclosures released on Saturday, with the purchases spanning several sectors.

• Trump carried out 175 financial transactions last month, according to forms released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The forms don’t include exact values for each sale or purchase, only a range of values for each.

• Most of the assets disclosed were municipal bonds issued by states, counties, school districts and other entities with ties to government agencies or public-private partnerships.

• His 26 largest transactions, in the $1 million to $5 million range, were mainly municipal bonds or U.S. Treasuries, although two of the deals listed were purchases of corporate offerings from Weyerhaeuser and General Motors. He also invested in an exchange-traded fund tracking a high-yield bond index.

• The president bought corporate bonds across energy, technology, healthcare and financial services, with issuers including Constellation Energy, Occidental Petroleum, Broadcom, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Wall Street banks Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, along with Boeing.

• The combined maximum value of Trump’s bond purchases across all asset classes is about $161 million.

(Reporting by Laura Matthews in New YorkEditing by Rod Nickel)

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By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, April 24 (Reuters) – The Trump administration again plans to terminate the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants, after a judge blocked its initial effort to revoke permissions to live in the United States granted under Democratic President Joe Biden.

The administration detailed its intention in filings in federal court in Boston, where a judge had ruled in March that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully when it ended the legal status of more than 900,000 people who were allowed to live in the country after using the Biden-era app CBP One.

That judge, Allison Burroughs, on Friday scheduled a May 6 hearing to consider barring DHS from following through on its plans.

DHS did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Under Biden, immigrants had been generally granted two-year terms of humanitarian parole after using CBP One, an app that allowed them to schedule an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

After Republican President Donald Trump returned to the White House, many non-citizens who ​received parole through ⁠the CBP One process received an email in April 2025 from DHS saying it was terminating their parole and it was “time for you to leave the United States.”

Burroughs, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, last month concluded DHS needed to undo the parole terminations, saying DHS failed to provide a necessary record showing an official determined the purposes of parole had been served.

The U.S. Department of Justice this week told Burroughs that while the administration was complying with her order, it was also issuing new parole termination notices to those migrants pursuant to a Tuesday memo from CBP’s head, Rodney Scott.

The memo is not public, but according to the Justice Department, Scott provided an explanation for why, in his opinion, “parole is no longer appropriate for those aliens.”

Lawyers at the groups Democracy Forward and Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, representing migrants challenging DHS’ actions, in a Thursday filing urged Burroughs to intervene and prevent what they called a “deliberate attempt to evade compliance with the court’s order.”

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Nia Williams)

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